"I had used McCauley Sound twice on previous occasions, and I found it to be a very high performance yet cost effective solution."

Mark Labouff

Ford Audio-Video

Mount Ararat Baptist Church in Stafford Virginia upgraded their family life center sound system with McCauley Sound IN.LINE arrays after an M.LINE demo was set up by Mark Labouff from Ford Audio Video Systems out of Tulsa Oklahoma. Initially the demo was to help Mount Ararat make a solid decision for their new worship space, but they decided to place a new system in the family life center first.

Chris Cepulis, the Worship and Creative Arts Associate from Mount Ararat said “we had been struggling with the sound in our family life center for quite some time as it was a make shift audio system. During more contemporary worship services, we would bring in additional speakers because the one system alone couldn’t handle what we needed it to.” Using the original system and adding speakers around the room to compensate for more sound did not work out so well. “We thought if we could piecemeal the system together it would be ok, because at least we would have more sound,” she recalls “but really, it only made things worse. The sound was so dimensional that it made some parts of the room louder and others just unbearable.”

The church was in the process of building a new worship space when they contacted Mark and asked the team at Ford AV to help design the systems, video, lighting and sound for the new facility. “I had used McCauley Sound twice on previous occasions,” said Mark, “and I found it to be a very high performance yet cost effective solution. The design we produced included McCauley and it fit very well into the new worship space, but the church staff wanted to hear it before signing off on the system. So I talked to Bruce about setting up a demo.” In October of 2006, Bruce Anderson of Central United States Sales and Daniel Casado, McCauley Sound’s Technical Support Engineer went to Stafford and set up a demo on a weekend Mount Ararat was hosting a technical conference.

That Friday morning, Daniel, Bruce and Mark set up the demonstration gear in the gymnatorium Mount Ararat uses for their family life center. For the demo, Daniel and Bruce and brought an M.LINE to hang on the left and right sides with four cells in the center for a front fill. Jim Howard, a congregation member of Mount Ararat Baptist Church, and Chairman of the AV Committee, was at the demonstration to see what he might be getting to play with in the near future. “I remember the system capabilities being amazing and we wanted to go in the direction where a McCauley line array system would be a great asset to our new facility.”

“When we heard and felt the system, we loved it, but then there came the question of affordability,” said Chris. At the time of the demo, Mount Ararat was in the process of building the new worship space. After some more trial and error with the make shift sound system in the gymnatorium, Chris said “it got to a point where we knew we needed to do something. Obviously since we had such a good experience with the demo, we decided to go with the McCauley IN.LINE Line Array.”

Mount Ararat’s family life center was fitted with 12 N120’s, 8 N90’s and 4 NS1’s all in a left/right/center hang. “I can’t say enough about Ford AV,” recalls Chris, “they were great to work with and everyone working at the church was very comfortable having them there. They are trustworthy, hard working and knew exactly what to do. Even coming across a few design issues regarding facility structure, Ford solved them efficiently. They were really awesome!” said Chris.

“The AV Committee’s job is to make sure the message is delivered on a clear, consistent level without interruption,” said Jim. “The value of McCauley and the efficiency of the product along with the cost makes it a really great choice.” During the installation, Jim was around but he says “with Ford AV doing the install, it was a different process from the demo, but still really simple. Now there’s even coverage throughout the room. We’ve had some great reviews from the congregation already. People can tell it’s a market world of difference in the sound quality.”

With the new installation in full swing, Chris sees this new IN.Line Array sound system as a blessing and a curse, but in a laughable way. “When Patrick McDaniel from Ford AV came to tune the room, it was so clean and crisp and clear. I couldn’t believe we were in our gym. It was as though our family life center had been transformed. The sound before was muddy, like you knew there were drums in there but it just sounded like a big rumble. Now it’s scary,” chuckling, she goes on to say “As a musician, I really have to stay on my toes. Knowing that everyone can hear everything, it’s so important for us to be on top of our game now. It’s really wonderful.”

“When we get to a point where we’re ready for the sound and light installation in the new church,” said Jim “it will be easy to go back to McCauley. When we did the tech conference, the experience working with the McCauley Sound team was really great. During the conference, we asked Daniel to lecture, and not only did he agree, but he was so supportive to one young man particularly interested in technical ministries. Daniel spent time really working with this young man to help him understand the nuances of sound reinforcement. It’s great when companies go above and beyond the call of duty.”